Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Star Ratings

I always debate about whether I want to use star ratings on posts because there is so much room for interpretation on exactly what the star ratings mean. So today, I thought I would talk a little about my use of star ratings.Before I start talking about my experiences with star ratings I thought it would be a good idea to explain my interpretations of the star ratings.1 star - I didn't like this book, I hated it and I would not recommend it to anybody.2 stars - This book was ok, I didn't hate it but I didn't much like it either. I wouldn't read the sequel and probably be very cautious about reading another book by the same author.3 stars - I liked this book. There were however, a few things about it that made me just like it and not really like it or love it.4 stars - I really liked this book. There were just one or two things that stopped me from absolutely loving this book.5 stars - I loved this book. It is a book I would definitely re-read and wouldn't hesitate to read anything more by the author. They don't have to be perfect.

I used to use star ratings on the blog a really long time ago but stopped after a while because sometimes I found it hard to put a star rating to a book. Especially when other people saw my ratings as different to how they interpret it.I did however, continue to rate the books on Goodreads and also add my reviews on Goodreads along with the star ratings. I did this because Goodreads is really easy to give star ratings on and also Goodreads tends to prefer if there are star ratings with reviews.One day however, I had rated a book 3 stars on Goodreads because I liked it but didn't love it. The book captured my interest when I was reading it but whenever I put it down it took me a while to get back to it. The author saw my review and left quite a rude comment stating that I had rated badly and my review doesn't dictate the same thing as my review therefore my review is a piece of trash and should be taken with a grain of salt. I was really upset about this because it wasn't too long after I had started blogging so not sure what to do I deleted the comment and decided to not put star ratings up on Goodreads. I hadn't until now.Now, I am putting star ratings on my books on Goodreads for this year for a couple of reasons. The first being that I want to help Goodreads by putting the star ratings so they can use it for statistical purposes and recommending books to others. The other is that I want to be able to keep track of how I felt about my books a bit easier at the end of the year.What I'm curious about is do you use star ratings and if so why or why not?

2 comments:

I think some books are harder to rate than others, so I don't use them religiously. However over the years, it's become easier for me to know the difference between a 3 and a 3.5. I too like you do not give 5 stars often!